My interest in film photography came long after becoming embroiled in its pixelated sibling.

For me, the finiality of film photography allows me to enjoy the picture making process fully in the moment.

With digital, the satisfaction comes after fully editing a photo, adjusting levels and sharpening and cropping. With film photography, I find the finality of exposing the film and locking away the photo a liberation. For shoots in tricky circumstances, ie. gig photography, i’ll stick with my DSLR. But for photography for my own enjoyment i’m really enjoying using film.

Other factors strongly pushing me to enjoy film photography are the cameras as mechanical objects. I’ve had one run in with my DSLR, culminating in soldering a new circuit board into it, but this isn’t something i’d like to repeat. The older classic cameras, have a tactility and function which makes them a pleasure to use.

Price, is also an advantage. I’ve picked up three very nice cameras all for the price of canons cheapest production lens (£60)

Finally, the developing and printing (B&W) is a joy. Chemicals, darkened rooms and bits of film; whats not to like?

Actually, spending the odd hour or so in the dark with eyes open does wonders for eyes which spend most of their days clamped on the halide glow of a monitor.

A birthday present from the lovely tasha, which has seen less use than it should. Someting I hope to remedy now i’ve got access to a darkroom. Using 120mm film over twice the size of 35mm standard film most of us are used to using, these films are capable of resolving more detail than 35mm film (and less than large formatfilm). The Lubitel series were very cheap medium format cameras, almost deemed toy cameras (see holga). Still, they’re a great way to have a go at medium format photography.

Taken from Westbury white horse, in Wiltshire. I used ISO 3200 B&W ilford film. Completly the wrong film for the circumstances. Which led to completly overexposing the sky and much of the foreground. However, I really like the effect, catching the smoke billowing off into the whiteout. The creeping of the over exposed areas into the foreground around the sides, has reversevignetting effect. Neather of these traits is tranditionally good camera techneique, but I relish these mistakes, something so easily scrapped when using digital.

The night of Norwegian black metal courtesy courtesy of onyx black 1349. Not a band which frequents my stereo yet a spectacle not to be missed. Goat the head provided some support, and large bellys.

I stuck with my 30mm 1.4 for these, natural light was good enough to capture some sharp shots.

The girl at the bar looked just about ready to leap on the Adonis to her left.

The main even was 1349, corpse paint and long hair. A torrent of double foot pedles, shreding and devil horns sums up the experience. From a photography point of you I used some flash (no lights from the front) and in post production I moved everything into the blue end of the spectrum, this gave everything a much more metal feel.

Love the hand to the right of this picture and as in all of these the expressions.

Birmingham played host to a startling array of the dark, stormy, deep and lustrous extremities of music. Here passes a selection of photos from the day and a spattering of comments.

Miasma and the Carousel of Headless Horses – These guys excelled; prog virtuosity, with face-paint.

Bee Stung Lips – Loud and proud

These lads will be playing host to the inimitable Lovvers later this summer, I think it’ll be something special.

Chrome Hoof

Chrome Hoof

Om – These guys just tore through such ferocious songs I was almost buffeted backward.

Oxbow

The Oxbow duo to be precise, joined by members of Sunn O))) to be even more precise. Starting off be-suited and respectable it soon degenerated into spat lyrics sweaty boxers and a penchant for sweaty rubbing.

I was absolutely blown away, the ferocity of the lyrics sat so starkly next to the guitarwork.

Oxbow – Eugene Robinson

Stacks

The final hurrah came in the unquenchable Sunn O))), the stage circled by stacks of speakers, the tension grew as the stage slowly filled with smoke, acrid and all consuming, the stage was footlit with a green glow, the swirling smoke utterly impenetrable, the opening reverberating notes shook the room…

No words or pictures could capture the atmosphere these guys create, so little visual stimulus and so much sound just numbs you..

Only occasionally would the cloaked figures appear at the front, often stooping over the footlights as though sinking to a hearth, it was truly memorising and unwaveringly loud.

Cocorosie, fresh from their latest and somewhat divisive album “The Adventures of Ghostface and Stillborn” arrive in Nottingham to little fanfare, a disappointing turnout does little however to deter the crowd.Cocorosie beatboxer Tez gets us off to a great start with a prodigious display which almost but not quite has the audience dancing. Certainly his affable charm warm the crowd up nicely, and as Cocorosie saunter onstage bathed in red lights there is a real sense of excitement, their always detached but breezy performance incorporates grand piano, harp, bass and keyboards, and a variety of trinkets, toys and bells.

The music is sublime, focusing on the latest album the song structures are a perfect blend of hip hop, folk and ambience, songs from previous albums such as beautiful boyz stir the crowd up but with the new material they really shine. The sisters Sierra and Bianca are both powerfull yet utterly different, Sierras high and soaring operatic (trained) voice juxtaposes Biancas faintly disturbing Newsome like breathy delivery perfectly. Their music is utterly compelling filled with dark twisted lyrics, ever changing melodies, decorative piano and harp all cut through by harsh beats and cutting lyrics “Before the yearning song of flesh on flesh, young hearts burst open wounds bleed fresh”. I found the whole set totally consuming and entrancing to the end.

How long Cocorosie can continue to tour without some serious commercial success is questionable.